Advice for support/ Bipolar/BPD
Hi, I’ve been trying too seek support as I have strong symptoms of bipolar disorder. I reached out to my doctor after I was told by a psychologist I couldn’t attend trauma therapy ( I have PTSD) until I have been assessed and correctly medicated/diagnosed. I had an assessment which took 2 hours and was dismissed by the psychiatrist however I was told that they would converse with my doctor too provide mood stabilisers. I then received no support or diagnosis, this was 5 months ago.
I received a summary letter outlining my assessment, important information was missed, fragmented and not explained properly. I provided mood trackers which I completed for 4 months on the bipolar UK app. I provided a list of my symptoms and explained how I have either hypo-manic or depressive episodes and very rarely do I experience a day of a “ balanced” mood.
I have since been left on antidepressants and even offered an extra one ( apparently to make me sleep), I’m on sleeping medication, diazepam, beta blockers and of course none of these help. I have since been told I possibly have Autism, ADHD, OCD and now BPD.
The psychiatrist has finally agreed too meet with me next month, the same one who denied mood stabilisers. I’m just wondering if anyone has any advice for this appointment because I just want too explain what I’m going through, I just want too try a mood stabiliser because I have tried everything else I’ve been asked too and I can’t have therapy until I’m more stable due to safeguarding.
if you have any advice, lived experience or anything at all you can offer on this, I would be so grateful. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I know it’s very long but I wanted too provide a background story for better understanding.
Sometimes it can be so hard to explain how you feel to a medical professional when you are confused about your diagnosis. For years I have been put on medication for everything doctors have diagnosed me with much of what you have been told. I think the best thing you can do is talk to a psychiatrist that will work with you. Those assessments I feel do more harm then good, know that you are not just a list of symptoms. You are a person with real feelings and complex emotions and deserve to be treated as such. Find a psychiatrist that will listen to you and how you feel, remember that you are not just a diagnosis and everyone’s treatment will be a little different. It took me a while but you will learn what works for you. Medication can be necessary, but having experience with different classes of mood stabilizers I often wish I didn’t have to take them because of how they make me feel. I never really fit any of the diagnosis for bipolar, depression, or anxiety completely and until my doctor explained that my unstable behavior fit borderline. There is really no medicine that will completely cure these type of mood or personality conditions but treating the symptoms and finding what my triggers are has really helped. For me a combination of lower doses of atypical antipsychotics, mood stabilizers
and antidepressants for anxiety worked best for managing my mood changes from a clinical standpoint (these literally make you feel nothing, I guess you can’t be emotional if you’re numb 😂). However I think that the side effects of these medications outweighed the benefits. I have gotten so much better at identifying what makes me emotional and learn how to respond to difficult situations, one day I would like to be fully off medication but for now it helps me stay stable. I am currently on Lamictal and pristiq. It’s not perfect but I feel like it’s a good balance of feeling human and having some stability. It can feel hard when you don’t understand how you feel, I empathize with your experiences and hope you can find what works for you.
Nicely explained
Hello
I'm using aripiprazole 5 and sodium valproate 500 as a mood stabilizer and citalopram 20 for low moods and biperiden 2 for preventing side effects